Offline marketing promotion methods for educational training institutions

If educational training institutions want to obtain a certain amount of traffic, in addition to seizing online traffic operation channels, offline marketing and promotion are also very important, and ground promotion is one of the ways. So, how should ground promotion be carried out for small and medium-sized training institutions? In this article, the author combines the AIDA model to summarize the methods and strategies that training institutions can use to effectively promote their products. Let’s take a look.

90% of training institutions do offline marketing, investing a lot of manpower and material resources, but with very little output.

Many principals told me that field marketing is difficult. I have summarized that this "difficulty" is probably reflected in two aspects.

First, it has no effect. We distributed 10,000 flyers, but contacted less than 30 parents.

Second, there are hidden dangers. Find a part-time job to do door-to-door promotion. In order to meet the targets and earn more income, the part-time job does not communicate with the organization and makes some false promises. Then when parents come to you to fulfill the promises, it takes a lot of time, energy and financial resources to deal with them. Moreover, these parents generally have a low intention to become regular employees. It is a huge waste of manpower costs to use a lot of energy to maintain a low-quality customer base.

However, ground promotion is still a must for institutional marketing: for training institutions that focus on business within the surrounding 3-5 kilometers, ground promotion has the characteristics of low startup cost , real user acquisition , precise delivery , and better contact with surrounding parents .

I have read many articles on "how training institutions can do a good job in ground marketing". Some of them are very fragmented, only talking about single details such as speech techniques, which makes it difficult for institutions to form a systematic ground marketing plan; or they are very large, focusing on a full range of issues such as preliminary research and part-time training, which are more suitable for large schools, but not for small and medium-sized training institutions with less than 500 students.

I will sort out how to do a good job in ground promotion by focusing on three aspects: the purpose of ground promotion, method logic, and operational execution . This method is more suitable for institutions with less than 500 students and for marketing and operations for high-quality customers. The approach of placing a large number of advertisements for 1 yuan courses, firing a cannon to reach more people, and then casting a wide net to catch fish from the sea requires high financial and labor costs and is not suitable for our small and medium-sized institutions.

What we need to do is to create a small funnel to screen out high-quality users and, through refined operations, ensure the subsequent conversion rate, renewal rate, and referral rate.

1. Clearly promote the purpose

It is difficult for training institutions to skip the stages of understanding and trust and directly make the first-time parents close the deal. This is determined by brand power, user cost, and usage scenarios:

• Brand preparation: Institutions often do not have a large number of advertising campaigns. Many parents contacted by ground marketing are first-timers and need to build trust.
• User cost: Courses are not fast-moving consumer goods. The price of regular courses ranges from 80 to several hundred yuan per class. To purchase courses, parents need to pay money and children need to spend time. The opportunity and time costs are high, and parents will pay more attention to the final results. The decision-making cycle of parents will be longer.
• Usage scenario: Parents and children need to spend extra time to attend classes, especially for quality education, which is not a rigid demand.

Therefore, this determines that the ultimate goal of ground promotion is not purchase, but:

1. Reservoir your user pool and increase the number of high-quality potential users;
2. Better understand parents' needs and leave a good first impression.

Therefore, in the step of field promotion, the most important task is to establish connections: let parents leave orders and add WeChat; in certain face-to-face communication situations, if parents are willing to pay, a deposit for the trial class can be collected to offset the course fees.

2. AIDA Model for Ground Promotion

Ground marketing is a type of marketing activity. A successful marketing activity needs to utilize human psychology to design four links:

1. Attention: Attention

When you are walking on the street and someone hands you a flyer, you rarely even look at it twice. But what if it is a mirror?

A friend of mine once came up with an idea for a flyer for an art organization. The idea was to stick mirror paper on the front of the paper, and the effect of connecting it to the leaflet was similar to connecting it to a mirror. There is an advertising slogan on the mirror, which is something like: In xx days, you can draw like the real thing. On the back are the institution’s courses, advantages, and a large QR code. The call inquiries received by this single page are more than ten times better than those of ordinary single pages.

Using abnormalities to design marketing materials is a good way to attract attention.

2. Interesting: Stimulate interest

After attracting his attention, you need to stimulate his interest and attract him to learn more deeply. The best way to arouse his interest is to meet his needs.

To understand parents’ needs and how your institution can meet their needs, you can look at the methods I provided in “9 Tips on Enrollment Marketing for Training Institutions (1): Write the Copy Right First, Then Write It Well”. The piano lesson slogan used as an example, “Children who learn piano will not become bad children”, hits the real needs of parents and makes parents more interested in learning about the institution’s piano lessons.

3. Desire: Arouse desire

Having interest alone is not enough, you also need to tell him what clear and specific results the action can bring: What can I get by adding you on WeChat? What can I get if I pay a deposit for a trial class?

“Master 100 words in 3 minutes” will make people who take CET-4 and CET-6 more eager to buy.

In addition to clear results, people also have the herd mentality of "everyone is doing it, and you will lose out if you don't do it", which is also an important factor in stimulating the desire to act.

4. Action: Enabling Action

The final step is to facilitate action.

There are two burdens that need to be reduced here: one is the burden of action, such as adding WeChat, being able to find the QR code quickly, and if making a payment, the payment process needs to be reduced.

The second is to reduce the psychological burden of action. You can tell him that it is not necessary to pay for the class just by adding WeChat or leaving contact information, and it is not necessary to switch to full-price classes after taking a trial class. For example, a dance institution can tell him that the trial class allows the child to complete the learning of a dance.

3. Using AIDA model to promote

1. Sweep the floor

The time for subject-based tutoring institutions to visit the classroom can be after each quiz or after the results are released. Often at this time, parents have the strongest desire to improve their children's grades. Parents of children with poor grades would most want to enroll them in cram schools at this time, and parents of children with good grades would also hope that their children's grades would be better. For quality-oriented institutions, they can choose before the holidays. At this time, parents have a greater need for their children to learn some special skills.

How to do it:

1) Attention: attract attention at first glance in terms of material/form

Flyers and cards are too common, so let’s change our idea: use envelopes. Order a batch of envelopes on Alibaba, print the organization’s logo on the cover, and write: "To XX community/neighborhood parents", and insert them in the door cracks of residential buildings near the organization.

Advantages of doing this:

Things at the doorstep are not thrown away directly, but taken home, so the opening rate is much higher;

"Envelopes" are an unconventional material. Popmart, which went public by selling blind boxes, actually took advantage of this psychology by taking advantage of parents' curiosity and desire to open packages.

If the person who receives the envelope is a parent, the words "To XX community/neighborhood parents" are strongly relevant. He will clearly know that the content inside is related to the child and will be more likely to open the envelope.

2) Interesting: meet the needs of parents and stimulate their interest

Put a study information card in the envelope. At the beginning of the card, briefly explain some common learning problems of children, so that after reading it, parents will feel: This is exactly the problem I want to solve.

3) Desire: Telling specific results to arouse desire

Add teacher XX on WeChat and receive free learning materials. The learning materials here should be specific, such as "Primary School Chinese Class Notes", "Primary School Mathematics Formulas and Theorems", etc. Where do the materials come from? You can go to Taobao to search and purchase electronic versions of the information, or you can look for it on Bilibili or Douyin.

In addition to this, you can also say after the study materials that “317 parents in XX community/neighborhood have received the materials”, so that parents will feel that “everyone has it, and I’ll be losing out if I don’t get it.”

4) Action: Reduce the burden of action and promote action

Attach the WeChat QR code in a prominent position on the card so that he can quickly scan it and add it.

After adding WeChat, we regularly send the promised learning materials to parents. So how do we attract them to our store?

After sending the information 2 to 3 times, the parents will have a certain degree of trust in you. At this time, you can tell them: It is inconvenient for children to read the electronic version, so they can get the paper version for free at the institution. The address of the institution is XXX.

2. Issue an order

The place where flyers are distributed is usually 20-30 meters around the school, or in a square next to a residential area. In the evening or on weekends, parents bring their children to the square to relax.

How to do it:

1) Attention: attract attention at first glance in terms of material/form

Stop handing out flyers and instead develop the syllabus for the trial class into a 3-4 page document and talk to parents about it.

Why use an outline:

1. By making the content you want to convey concrete, parents can more clearly understand the learning effect that can be achieved after completing the course;
2. The life cycle of materials is extended. The psychological pressure of throwing away a booklet is much greater than that of throwing away a flyer.
3. Based on what’s on the syllabus, there’s a lot more to talk about;
4. This form transforms the field sales staff from a simple salesperson into a provider of course content and solutions, and is also easier to win the trust of parents.

Since we are discussing the course outline, it is best if the sales staff are school teachers rather than part-time staff. Before the sales, they should be trained on the course content and knowledge points of the experience class so that they can communicate about the course with parents with the help of materials.

2) Interesting: meet the needs of parents and stimulate their interest

The course outline can already arouse some interest of parents. Here you can briefly inform parents of the results, such as helping children develop good thinking habits, strengthening their interests, and preparing for the next step.

3) Desire: Telling specific results to arouse desire

The syllabus for the trial class should include the course content design, a total of XX classes, the content theme and outline of each class, and what knowledge points the children can master through the series of courses. The syllabus for subject-based institutions can also include some example questions and solutions, while the syllabus for quality education can include some practice methods, which can help parents better retain this information.

4) Action: Reduce the burden of action and promote action

The ideal situation is to allow parents to go to the institution with the course outline to collect a gift when distributing flyers around the institution; secondly, ask parents to leave contact information and add WeChat.

Pay attention to a small detail here: when preparing the form to fill in the information, fill in a dozen contact information on the list first, creating a feeling that "many people are doing it" and lowering parents' defenses.

Every contact information left is recorded instantly into the school's database of potential students using a CRM system such as SalesEasy, FunShare, or the education and training industry's management system - School Manager Cloud School, to avoid loss and facilitate subsequent follow-up and conversion.

4. Add three execution details

1. How to use part-time job

Small and medium-sized organizations often have limited staff. Although they know that hiring part-time workers is risky, they may still need to hire part-time workers due to manpower constraints.

How to use part-time jobs to reduce risks: split the field sales work into "mechanical" work and "subjective" work. For example, dealing with property management before sweeping the building and entering residential areas are subjective jobs, and it is best to have a full-time teacher present. The distribution of envelopes after entering the community is a mechanical job, which is done by part-time teachers and the results are checked by full-time teachers.

The outline of the face-to-face communication experience course is a subjective task and is best controlled by a full-time teacher throughout the process.

2. Add WeChat

The importance of leaving a phone number is self-explanatory, why should we add WeChat? This is also related to our labor costs. When communicating via WeChat, you can create a script file library, copy and paste, and modify some text before sending it to parents. You can also send it to a group, which makes maintenance more efficient.

Secondly, distributing the information materials as electronic products will provide parents with valuable information, while it will not increase costs for institutions.

Third, after adding WeChat, you can build stronger stickiness by interacting with parents’ friends circle; you can also create your own circle of friends to convey a positive institutional image and gain the favor of parents.

3. The list is timely stored

The field teachers should record the contact information they obtain in the school's database of potential students through CRM systems such as SalesEasy and the education and training industry's management system School Manager Cloud School. The principal can promptly know the situation of each field teacher obtaining information, understand how many parents the teachers have connected with, and reasonably allocate potential parent resources.

In the follow-up process, recording the child’s situation and communicating in a targeted manner will leave a more professional impression on parents.

Finally, let’s summarize:

1. The field promotion is the first contact between the institution and parents, and the main purpose is to leave a good first impression and obtain contact information;
2. The four principles of ground marketing design are: use unusual forms to attract parents' attention, meet parents' needs to stimulate their interest, inform parents of specific results to arouse their desire, and reduce parents' burden of action to promote action.

Author: Li Zimu

Source: Plum Wood